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Communication with Extraterrestrial Intelligence DOCID: 3052333 FOR OFFICIAL USE ONLY Lambros D. Callimahos Communication with Extraterrestrial Intelligence We are not alone in the universe. A few years ago, this nearest would probably be at least 100 light years away; notion seemed farfetched; today, the existence of therefore it would take 200 years for a reply to be extraterrestrial intelligence is taken for granted by most forthcoming, a small matter of seven generations. This scientists. Even the staid National Academy of Sciences should, however, make little difference to us, in view of has gone on record that contact with other civilizations the enormous potential gain from our contact with a "is no longer something beyond our dreams but a natural superior civilization. Unless we are terribly conceited (a event in the history of mankind that will perhaps occur in very unscientific demeanor), we must assume that the the lifetime of many of us." Sir Bernard Lovell, one of "others" are far more advanced than we are. Even a 50­ the world's leading radio astronomers, has calculated year gap would be tremendous; a 500-year gap staggers that, even allowing for a margin oferror of 5000%, there the imagination, and as for a 5000-year gap... (By the must be in our galaxy about 100 million stars which have way, if they are as much as 50 years behind us, forget it!) planets of the right chemistry, dimensions, and It is quite possible that .. others" have satellite probes in temperature to support organic evolution. If we consider space, retransmitting to "them" anything that sounds that our own galaxy, the Milky Way, is but one ofat least nonrandom to the probe. But they have probably called a billion other galaxies similar to ours in the observable us several thousand years ago, and are waiting for an universe, the number ofstars that could support some form answer; or worse yet, they have given up; or, more of life is, to reach for a word, astronomical. As to probably, they have reached such impressive advanced forms of life-advanced by our own miserable technological advances that they have destroyed earth standards-Dr. Frank D. Drake of the National themselves. In this connection, Professor Iosif Shklovsky, Radio Astronomy Observatory at Green Bank, West Russia's greatest radio astronomer, has cited the profound Virginia, has stated that, putting all our knowledge crises which lie in wait for a developing civilization, any together, the number of civilizations which could have one ofwhich may well prove fatal: arisen by now is about one billion. The next question is, (1) Self-destruction as a result of a thermonuclear "Where is everybody?" catastrophe or some other discovery which may have The nearest neighbor to our solar system is Alpha unpredictable and uncontrollable consequences; Centauri, only 4.3 light years away; but, according to Dr. (2) Genetic danger; Su-Shu Huang of the National Aeronautics and Space (3) Overproduction ofinformation; Administration, its planetary system is probably too (4) Restricted capacity of the individual's brain, young for the emergence of life. Two other heavenly which can lead to excessive specialization, with friends, Epsilon Eridani and Tau Ceti, about 11 light consequent dangers ofdegeneration; and years away, are stronger contenders for harboring life. (5) A crisis precipitated by the creation of Nevertheless, if superior civilizations are abu~dant, the arti ficial intelligent beings. This article was given as a lecture at the Cosmos Club in Epsilon Eridani and Tau Ceti were the targets on Washington earlier this year. which Dr. Drake focussed his' attention in the spring of 4 FOR OFFICIAL USE ONLY DOCID: 3052333 POR: OffICIAL U~! ONLY 1960 in Project Ozma, an attempt to detect possible detect); if so, "they" may have to wait a century or two intelligent signals from outer space. The frequency before we learn how to build a neutrino receiver. selected for listening was 1420.405752 megacycles per The growing presumption that life exists in other second, or a wave length of 21 em. This particular worlds led, in 1971, to a six-nation multidisciplinary frequency, postulated independently by two professors on conference held in Soviet Armenia on Communication the faculty of Cornell University, Giuseppe Cocconi and with Extraterrestrial Intelligence. The U.S. delegation of Philip Morrison, happens to be the radiation frequency of about two dozen scientists was headed by Dr. Carl Sagan atomic or free hydrogen which permeates space in great of the Center for Radiophysics and Space Research at clouds; moreover, this frequency is within the range of Cornell University. The report of this conference, radio frequencies able to pass through the earth's published in 1973 by MIT, deals with such subjects as atmosphere. Presumably, the significance of this the evolution of intelligence, the lifetimes of technical frequency would be known to other intelligent beings in civilizations, and the number of advanced galactic the universe who understand radio theory. We are still civilizations. Last November a group of scientists at talking about radio waves as the communication medium; Arecibo Observatory in Puerto Rico sent a three-minute other possible media might be masers, lasers, or the as yet message beamed at Messier 13, and this represented undiscovered and unnamed "rasers." A technology man's first attempt to take the initiative in superior to ours might even have learned how to communicating with another civilization. The project was modulate a beam of neutrinos (weightless, uncharged conducted by the National Astronomy and Ionosphere particles that physicists on earth find it difficult even to Center, which operates the Are"ibo Observatory for 1000000000000000000000000000000000000000 1000011100000000001000001000000100000100 o 0 0 0 0 1 000 1000000000000000000000000000 000 000 000 1 000 1 0 0 0 0 1 000 000 10000000000001 000 0 o 0 0 0 0 0 0 1 000 1000001000000100000 000 1 0 0 0 100 o 100 0 000 0 1 1 1 Q 0 0 0 0 0 0 0.0 0 0 000 1 0 0 0 0 0 0 0 0 0 000 1 o 000000000000000000000000000000000000000 000 0 0 0 0 0 0 0 0 0 ~ 000000000001000001 000 0 0 0 100 000 1 0 0 0 0 1 1 000 1 0 0 0 0 0 0 0 000 1100000000000000 000 000000000000 000 0 1 1 0 0 0 0 1 1 000 0 1 1 000 0 1 1 0 110 1 101 101 001 1 0 0 0 0 1 100 1 0 1 100 1 0 1 100 100 100 100 100 1 0 0 1 0 1 0 100 100 1 0 000 1 1 0 0 0 0 1 1 000 0 1 100 001 1 0 0 0 0 1 1 000 000 000 1 000 000000001111 101 0 0 o 000000000000000000100000000 000 1 0 0 0 0 0 100 o 00000000101 101 11001000000 GOO 0 0 0 0 1 1 1 1 101 o 0000000000000000000000000001 000 0 0 0 0 0 0 0 0 o 0 0 0 0 0 1 000 1 0 0 1 1 1 0 0 0 000 000000101000000 000 o 0 0 0 0 0 1 0 100 1 0 0 0 0 1 100 1 0 1 0 1 1 100 1 0 1 0 0 0 0 0 000 o 0 0 0 0 0 0 1 0 1 001 0000100000000001 001 0 0 0 0 0 000 000 0 0 0 0 0 0 100 1 0 0 000 1000000000001111100000 o 000000011111000 000 1 1 1 0 1 0 1 0 000 0 0 1 0 1 0 1 000 o 0 0 0 0 0 0 0 1 0 101 00000001000000000001 000 101 0 000 0 0 0 0 0 1 0 1 000 1 000 0000000000000001 000 100 1 000 100 0 100 1 101 100 1 1 101 101 1 0 1 0 0 0 0 0 1 000 1 0 001 0 101 0 1 000 1 000 1 0 0 000 0 0 0 0 0 0 0 000 0 0 0 1 000 1 000 1 0 0 1 0 0 1 000 1 000 10000001000000000000111 o 0 0 0 0 1 1 1 1 100 0 001 1 1 000 0000111110100000101 o 100000101000001 000 1 0 0 000 0 1 0 0 0 0 0 0 0 0 001 0 0 000 100001110000100000100000100 000 0 0 0 0 0 1 0 000 0 1 000 1 000 1 000 1 0 0 000 1 0 0 0 0 0 1 1 000 1 1 0 0 001 o 0 0 0 0 1 000 1 0 0 0 1 000 10000010000011 000 0 0 0 0 0 1 1 0 0 0 0 0 1 101 1 000 1 101 100 000 1 100 1 1 1 Figure 1 FOR OFFICMtI. USE ONLTt 5 DOCID: 3052333 FOR ORICIAL USE ONLY Cornell University and the National Science Foundation. Pythagorean Theorem, or similar geometric design. Messier 13 is a cluster of 300,000 stars on the edge of the These attention-getting signals would be followed by Milky Way, 24,000light years away, so if the message is what amounts to early "language lessons," interspersed received and answered promptly, unless we happen to hit with items of technical information to help bring us up to them on one of their three-day holidays we should have the level ofour superiors, "them." their answer in 48,000 years, give or take a day or two. It may be assumed that the sense of sight, or an Actually, the main purpose of the experiment was to equivalent, is possessed by all higher' forms of life; the dramatize the capabilities of the world's largest antenna problems of communication could thus be greatly at the Arecibo Observatory.
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